To live a life

Lately I have been thinking a lot about what it means to have a life. Not the the I am breathing and my heart is beating life (although this is very important to the whole living thing). The "wow you've got a great life" or the "I wouldn't want the kind of life." Who gets to say what is an accomplished life and what isn't or what makes a happy life and what doesn't or even yet what you have to have in your life or have done in your life in order to be in the right stage of life for your age.

I am 23 and 5/6ths and I guess this is the age where people think you may be starting to expire as far as the meeting the right guy, falling in love, and settling down thing goes. I have had more people ask me in the last 2 months when I am going to settle down, why I am not dating, and telling me they know the perfect guy for me. Maybe I am starting to wilt or something but I sure don't feel like I am starting to expire. I feel young and totally fulfilled and have my whole life ahead of me and am absolutely loving the life I am living, which is an amazing blessing I owe God absolutely all the credit for.

I guess I am saying I just don't know why we can't work at being a little more content in the exact place we are instead of always living in the if onlys. I am constantly doing this living for the next thing instead of living for the right here and now. If we are seeking God and living for Him then we are exactly where He has us and that has to be ok. Even if it is the opposite of where we think it should be or where we would choose to be.

I also have been challenged by something lately. I have gotten this exciting few year where I am getting to live my dream but what if it all ends tomorrow or a year from now and I settle in to a life more behind the scenes will I be just as content then. I was reading the Feb 5 entry in My Utmost for His Highest and was challenged by that thought.

"Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket - to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity."

Here I am more than willing to go and do and be a visible part of the work God is doing but I think it may just be a bigger and possibly more difficult calling for those who serve those who serve and stay faithful and diligent unto that work. The question is am I also willing to be that person. Sometimes its easy to serve when you see results in front of your face but that doesn't require all that much faith. The real trick is to stay faithful in the other circumstances where the results aren't quite so obvious. Tonight this is the prayer on my heart,

"....I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4: 11b - 13, NIV